Israel in US politics. Norman Finkelstein - Political scientist - BBC HARDtalk 2012. Resources. Peter Beinart's liberal Zionist fantasy. Irvine, CA - Poor Peter Beinart. For the past two years, he has served selflessly on the front lines of a fight for the "soul of Zionism", attempting to preserve - or better, revive - its supposedly liberal patrimony. The chances of success are so low that Ha'aretz has dubbed him "American Jewry's most prominent prophet of doom". Beinart first entered the fray with the publication of a 2010 opinion essay in the New York Review of Books titled "The Failure of the Jewish Establishment". And now Beinart has published a new book, The Crisis of Zionism, which calls on Jews in the US to defend the possibility of a democratic and Jewish Israel "before it's too late".
Beinart's is neither the first nor the most sophisticated warning about the crisis resulting from the contradictions between Zionism's ethno-religious exclusivism and the professed democratic ideals of the Jewish state. Intellectual and political timidity Herzlean fantasies 'Original sins' Blame it all on Netanyahu. "Liberal Zionism": A Contradiction in Terms. The comedian and filmmaker has been the smartest and funniest person in the room since he was in high school (maybe even earlier).
Here he's profiled just after making his first film. Albert Brooks’ second album, A Star is Bought, is the best comedy record most of you have probably never heart. It was never released on CD and it’s not available on ITunes. And that’s a shame because the record—which was made in collaboration with Harry Shearer—is one of the finest comedy albums ever made. Never mind that it was nominated for a Grammy or that it was in many ways a precursor to faux-documentary style of This Is Spinal Tap, it Albert in top form. According to Paul Slansky, who wrote “Everybody Should Have an Albert” for The Village Voice in March 1979, Brooks owns the rights to A Star is Bought, he just isn’t motivated to re-release it.
C'mon, Albert: Please. He knows funny when he sees it, which is why he was a beautiful fit to write about Albert. So whatever happened to Albert Brooks?
Obama, Sarkozy are right to not believe Netanyahu. Obama and the peace process. Bill Clinton: Netanyahu isn't interested in Mideast peace deal. Democratic congressional candidate: 90% Democrat, 100% Israel. Israel bias Cantor-productive in Washington. Leave it to House majority leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). With president Barack Obama expected to deliver a major speech outlining a new (or, at least, revised) Middle East peace strategy soon, Cantor decided it was time to invite Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to deliver a speech before a joint session of Congress. This is one of the benefits of having a Republican House at the same time that a Likud prime minister is in office in Israel: the two right-wing parties can work together to thwart any Democratic president's attempt to advance US national security by brokering Middle East peace. The last time this happened was in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was president. Newt Gingrich was speaker, and the self-same Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister.
Undermining the president Netanyahu, joyously anticipating Clinton's defeat for a second term, worked with the Republicans to subvert Clinton. Not surprising, but utterly unseemly. The geopolitics have changed And then there's Iran. Today's borders are the 'indefensible' ones. A dangerous shift on 1967 lines - The Palestine Papers. One of the more astonishing revelations in The Palestine Papers -- detailed records and minutes of the Middle East peace process leaked to Al Jazeera -- is that the administration of US President Barack Obama effectively repudiated the Road Map, which has formed the basis of the "peace process" since 2003.
In doing so it has backed away even from commitments made by the George W. Bush administration and blown an irreparable hole in the already threadbare "two-state solution. " But even worse, the US position perhaps unwittingly opens the door to dangerous Israeli ambitions to transfer -- or ethnically cleanse -- non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel in order to create an ethnically pure "Jewish state. " Shortly after it took office in January 2009, the Obama administration publicly called on Israel to freeze all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Dropping the 1967 border But this did not satisfy the Palestinians. "Two states for two peoples" Ira Chernus, The Great Israeli Security Scam.
Whiff of Desperation - By Stephen M. Walt. It is an ambassador's job to burnish his government's image; fidelity to the usual canons of logic and evidence are neither required nor expected. It is therefore unsurprising that Michael Oren's portrait of Israel as America's "ultimate ally" is a one-sided distortion of reality. The main targets of Oren's hasbara -- Hebrew for public diplomacy -- are some unnamed "realists," meaning anyone who questions the net benefits of America's so-called "special relationship" with Israel. All of the realists I know support Israel's existence and do not deny that the United States derives some modest benefits from its ties with the Jewish state.
However, they point out that many of these benefits (e.g., trade, scientific exchange, etc.) do not require a "special relationship" -- one in which Israel gets extensive and unconditional economic, military, and diplomatic support -- and they maintain that the costs of the current "special relationship" outweigh the benefits.
And that is why former U.S. The Ultimate Ally - By Michael Oren. What is the definition of an American ally? On an ideological level, an ally is a country that shares America's values, reflects its founding spirit, and resonates with its people's beliefs. Tactically, an ally stands with the United States through multiple conflicts and promotes its global vision. From its location at one strategic crossroads, an ally enhances American intelligence and defense capabilities, and provides ports and training for U.S. forces. Its army is formidable and unequivocally loyal to its democratic government. Few countries fit this description, but Israel is certainly one of them. Rather than viewing Israel as a vital American asset, an increasingly vocal group of foreign-policy analysts insists that support for the Jewish state, including more than $3 billion in annual military aid, is a liability.
By definition, realists seek a foreign policy immune to public sentiment and special interest groups. IN SPITE OF THE OVERWHELMING ADVANTAGES of the U.S. Is Israel REALLY a "Strategic Asset?" Last week the Washington Institute of Near East Policy released a brief report entitled "Israel: A Strategic Asset for the United States. " Such an event is not exactly headline news, insofar as the report is precisely the sort of analysis that you'd expect a "pro-Israel" think tank like WINEP to promote. What is slightly more interesting are the study's authors: Robert Blackwill and Walter Slocombe. Blackwill was formerly U.S. Ambassador to India (and a former colleague of mine here at the Kennedy School); Slocombe is a long-time Washington insider perhaps best known for helping mismanage the occupation of Iraq.
Their report checks in at a modest 17 pages of large type, and it offers few arguments that experienced Middle East mavens haven't heard before. Blackwill and Slocombe (hereafter B&S) begin by rehearsing the familiar claim that the United States and Israel are bound together by shared values, and by America's "moral responsibility" to defend the Jewish state. The answer is no.
Aaron David Miller - Israel's Lawyer. I'm not a lawyer by training, but I know one when I see one. For far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel's attorney, catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of successful peace negotiations. If the United States wants to be an honest and effective broker on the Arab-Israeli issue, than surely it can have only one client: the pursuit of a solution that meets the needs and requirements of both sides.
The case for Israel-first advocacy is compelling. Israelis live in a dangerous neighborhood; they have only one real friend and critically important security requirements that the United States is committed to furthering. Practically speaking, Israel sits on land the Arabs want, so without Israel's trust and confidence there can be no peace process. Having worked for the past six secretaries of state on Arab-Israeli negotiations, I believe in the importance of a strong U.S. Yet none of this is fatal. American Jews Rethink Israel. The Jewish push for peace is surging through the grassroots, but leaders and policy-makers are still turning a deaf ear. About the Author Philip Weiss Philip Weiss is the author of American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps (Harper Perennial) and an editor of the...
Adam Horowitz Adam Horowitz is an editor of the website Mondoweiss, which covers the Israel-Palestine conflict. Also by the Author Despite a “reconsideration” on the part of its author, the Goldstone Report remains as vital as ever for understanding the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict. BDS has become a key battleground in the struggle over the future of Israel/Palestine. This year has seen a dramatic shift in American Jews' attitudes toward Israel. These stirrings on the American Jewish street will come to a head in late October in Washington with the first national conference of J Street, the reformation Israel lobby. Sure sounds like a velvet revolution in the Jewish community, huh? First the good news. These were prominent Jews.
To sort...